An Airedale in the White House

Laddie Boy, President Warren G. Harding’s ever-faithful Airedale Terrier, was the first White House dog to become a celebrity in his own right.

Laddie Boy sat in his own hand-carved chair during Cabinet meetings. The White House held birthday parties for the dog, invited other neighborhood dogs to join, and served them “cake” made from dog biscuits and icing. In an “interview” with The Washington Post in 1921, Laddie Boy advocated an eight-hour workday for guard dogs.

After Harding’s death in office in 1923, newsboys all over the country collected 19,314 pennies to be remelted and sculpted into a statue of Laddie Boy. Harding’s widow died before the statue was completed in 1927 and the statue was presented to the Smithsonian Institution, where it currently resides.